‘Strumming My Pain With His Fingers’

When Dr. Nichols (my Media Criticism professor) announced the name of the documentary we would be watching, Killing Us Softly 4, the only thing I could think of was the famous Fugees’ song, Killing Me Softly With His Song. But after reading the lyrics to this 1996 hit, its meaning has no correlation to the meaning of the movie.

Killing Us Softly 4 is the most recent documentary by Jean Kilbourne regarding the portrayal and abuse of women through advertising.

Many of Kilbourne’s critics say she reads way to much into ads. I partially agree with this. Some of the ads shown in the film are a little distasteful and objectifying but has she ever thought that women do work in the advertising industry and those women create and approve these ads.

The female body has been transformed into beer bottles, kegs, and cars in order to sell a product. Kilbourne finds this insulting, I think some are creative. She should be flattered that the female figure is one artists want to recreate. She should be a little more particular about which ads she choose to react to or lash out against.

I found her take on the representation of black women very interesting. If women that are not Caucasian do not display any Caucasian features they are not considered pretty or beautiful.

Most of the time, black women are portrayed as wild animals in jungle-like settings.

But, if non-Caucasian women do display Caucasian features they are thought to be exotic.

Sarah & Poppy Burge

In the film, Kilbourne mentioned that a growing number of young girls are receiving boob jobs and other cosmetic procedures for their birthday and graduation presents. This is sadly true.

Recently, Sarah Burge – Human Barbie – was in the news for giving her daughter, Poppy, a boob job voucher, along with many other pricey presents, for her 7th birthday!

I do not agree with the message Burge is sending to her daughter, especially at such a young age. Girls are faced with beauty messages a lot while growing up. These messages tell them that they will never be pretty enough, skinny enough, or busty enough!

Dove Campaign For Real Beauty

To fight these messages Dove created a campaign for real beauty to remind girls and women that they are pretty without all the products and procedures.

It seems like Kilbourne has been on a mission to remove women from ads for 40 years but advertisers know that sex sells. I don’t see her winning this battle.